The Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America Goals and Visions

The AILLA Community Scholars: linguists, anthropologists, educators, botanists… Speakers of indigenous languages In Latin America General public, especially indigenous people living abroad.

Scholars: access and interests Access: good, although mostly via telephone connections in Latin America. Safe preservation of data collections. Venue for publication of data and early research results. Research: cross-linguistic/cultural analyses, typology, historical analyses…

Speakers: access and interests Access: ranges from university accounts to Internet cafes in market cities. Many will have little or no access. Language documentation: dictionaries, grammars, text collections, ethnographies. Language revitalization: teaching materials for all ages. Literature and broadcast media; Internet publication.

Heritage speakers Access: ranges from excellent to intermittent. Typically seeking language and culture materials for their children

AILLA’s Future Collection GrammarsDictionaries Texts: audio/video, transcriptions, translations Literature Teaching MaterialsArt: photos, drawings…

Key Tasks of an Archive Acquisition Data management Long-term preservation Dissemination Exploitation of archive resources

Acquisition triage Data from severely endangered languages. Data stored on obsolete media. Breadth of coverage. Support goals of speakers. Depth of coverage. Quality of supporting materials.

Data management Diverse resources Dynamic resources Standards and interoperability Data types and formats

Diverse Resources An eclectic collection Audio, video, text, graphic, photo From field notes to fully annotated films to virtual art galleries to collections of poems… Like a library: preserved forever and available to the public. Unlike a library: creators = publishers, producers and consumers overlap.

Dynamic Resources A volatile collection. Better to archive unanalyzed data than risk accidental loss. Archive as a medium for international collaboration. Depositors can update resources. Resources may have multiple versions.

Standards and interoperability We must have interoperable metadata and file formats to serve our users. AILLA has adopted the IMDI standard for metadata, with local customizations. IMDI & OLAC will maintain mappings so AILLA will be compliant with the global community. What we still need: standards for packaging multi-media language resources - bundles.

Data types and formats Audio:.wav and.mp3, with 1-minute mp3 samples of long works (> 10 mins) Text:.pdf and the original format. Future: Some kind of standard markup for texts? Some kind of neutral yet live text format? 2-minute chunks of.wav files? Video, photo, graphic, etc, etc, etc…

Preservation Long-term preservation is a requirement: it’s our primary mission! As long as there is a library at the University of Texas at Austin, AILLA’s resources will be preserved.

Dissemination Also a primary requirement of the archive: wide dissemination of resources. Internet best serves this requirement. Everything must be available online: metadata, metadata editors, upload/download resources, information… Issue: ensuring backwards compatibility, efficient functioning on old browsers, slow computers, and telephone connections. Everything must also be available offline, on CDs sent by mail.

Accessibility vs. protection Vast majority of AILLA’s collection will be public access, no restrictions. Graded access system controls access to sensitive materials: Level 2: automatic controls, e.g. passwords Level 3: depositor control, by permission only. Level 4: speaker control, by permission only. HOWEVER: Not publishing data is also a potential infringement of speakers’ right to access their own languages’ resources!

Usability AILLA’s users include people who Speak Spanish as a second language, and do not speak English; Have little or no prior computer experience; May have very little formal education; Probably do not speak academese. Mission: Interfaces must use clear, ordinary language, not jargon, and everything must be offered in Spanish as well as English.

Exploitation of resources Viewers, annotation tools, analysis tools… Anything that helps users achieve their goals using archive resources. Short term plan: scour the net for free software and provide links, guides, reviews, etc. from AILLA’s web site. Long term plan: seek agreements to localize all that fine software to Spanish.

Conclusion The long range vision: An nice fat endowment, to support and develop the archive, and offer grants to speakers working on their languages. Every last scrap of information ever created about the indigenous languages of Latin America, with all the necessary tools. An academic culture that requires archiving of data. A reputation among indigenous people as a full- service support site for their goals and visions for their languages.